The two things most people remember when visiting a hospital are the care they received and the quality of the food. Since food is a part of the healing process, McLaren Greater Lansing has put a focus on improving the food quality and processes. By making a few adjustments to their process, McLaren Greater Lansing achieved a 20% increase in efficiency.

“Our department is always looking for ways to make the dining experience better for patients and visitors,” Paula Abrams, Manager of Food and Nutrition at McLaren Greater Lansing said. “A big part of the experience is getting your meal on time and warm.”

Since timeliness is a big concern with food, especially for patients who may need food for certain medications, that became a priority for the staff in Food and Nutrition.

“We implemented a new process and standardized the way we write our food order tickets,” Abrams said. “Just by making these two changes we went from building a tray per minute to building 1.2 trays per minute. This doesn’t seem like much but when you are building hundreds of trays it makes a huge impact.”

More recently, the catering assistants check on patients as they dine to ensure the tray they received is complete and to their liking. They also work closely with the care staff on the floor to make sure every patient has a good experience. This new approach has increased accuracy and enjoyment.

“I was totally impressed with the food service during my hospital stay,” Doris Goad, a patient at McLaren Greater Lansing said. “Someone came to my room to take my order and checked back in to make sure my meal was good. I was really impressed with the menu, presentation, staff and the food was always brought at the right temperature. It made me feel like I was in a restaurant.”

In addition to creating new processes to ensure patients receive their meals on time and hot, the department has recently made some other updates. Last year the food and nutrition department at McLaren Greater Lansing rolled out a new menu full of made from scratch meals. They also implemented the highly praised celebrations meals, a program for new moms and their partner.

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